In the consumer market, Apple's iOS and Android's licensees have engaged in a consumer tug of war over sales. Among enterprise buyers however, Apple has maintained extensive lead that is only strengthening.

Consumers vs. the Consumerization of IT

Over the past two years, Android has consistently mounted a strong promotional push early in the year: Verizon's Android 2.0 "Droid" campaign in early 2010, followed by the advertising blitz surrounding Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets and a new generation of 4G, multicore smartphones early last year.

Both initiatives gave Android a big boost in mindshare among consumers who follow the mainstream tech media, particularly given Apple's silence surrounding its own competitive efforts. Outside of Apple's two iPad introductions, Android largely took over the mobile stage for the first half of both years.

Once Apple launched its response however, in the form of iPhone 4 in the summer of 2010 and iPhone 4S in the most recent holiday quarter, it became clear that Apple was still leading the industry. Super sized screens and LTE 4G data service haven't been enough to entice consumers away from Apple.

Among corporate users however, Android has had far less of an impact. On the surface, this might be puzzling given the strong trend toward BYOD or "bring your own devices," a consumerization of IT that has pushed corporate IT departments to support the devices their executives and employees want to use, rather than the devices the company selects for them.

How Apple entered IT

Historically, IT departments have selected the platforms and devices they are willing and able to support and have simply ignored alternatives, in some cases banning their use altogether as a potential security threat or a support burden adding unjustified expense. This long served as a natural barrier protecting the market for Intel-based PCs running Microsoft Windows and the Internet Explorer browser.

Over the past ten years however, a series of events conspired to open up the enterprise to new platforms and devices. Among these were the resurgence of Mozilla's Firefox as an alternative browser, combined with the growing stagnancy of Microsoft's own. Another pairing of events was Apple's introduction of the Unix-based Mac OS X just as Microsoft Windows began suffering a malware epidemic, which Apple capitalized upon in its "I'm a Mac" ads.

These pairing of flaws in the status quo and superior alternatives outside of it helped question the notion that a centrally standardized-upon monoculture was the best strategy in making technology decisions. It was the introduction of the iPhone, however, that really began to accelerate Microsoft's fading status as the brand "nobody got fired" for buying. While many people in IT continued to respect Microsoft's Windows, Server and browser products, nobody ever had much regard for its Windows Mobile offerings.

When the iPhone appeared as an easy to use, powerful mobile device with the world's first exceptional mobile browser, maps, Internet standard email with attachments and other features, it simply blew away Windows Mobile. Apple even began to make inroads into a business RIM's BlackBerry had long established as its own.

Microsoft helped accelerate Apple's ascent, licensing its Exchange ActiveSync protocols to Apple for use in 2008's release, in an effort to establish credibility for its own Exchange Server for corporate push messaging at the expense of RIM's competing BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Apple leveraged Exchange Server to gain entrance to the enterprise market, but didn't stop there. The company also worked to deliver a secure mobile development platform that met the demands of corporate users, along with adding support for corporate VPNs and proxy servers. By the 2010 introduction of iPad, Apple was already deeply entrenched among corporate users who needed mobile devices with more flexibility than RIM's text-centric BlackBerry platform and more power than the increasingly archaic alternatives running Windows Mobile 6.

The introduction of iPad expanded the iPhone's success from smartphones into an ARM-based tablet device that could challenge conventional WinTel PC with a cheaper, lighter, simpler alternative. The impact of iPad has been felt across the PC industry; its competitors are scrambling to follow Apple into both tablets and higher end Ultrabooks.

While Google immediately attempted to duplicate the iPad's successful formula, its Android 3.0 Honeycomb initiative clearly failed over the last year, paralleling the same reasons Google hasn't been able to find much adoption for Android among corporate users.

Consumer-centric devices not necessarily welcome in IT

A variety of exhibitors marketing cross platform, mobile device management solutions at this week's MacIT conference noted that Android remained a relatively small segment of the devices they support for clients, despite an apparent near tie between iOS and Android in the consumer smartphone market.

While Apple appears to have become wildly successful in winning over corporate users through the backdoor of attractive consumer-focused devices, the reality is that Apple has also devoted significant efforts to make its consumer products more attractive to corporate users. Mac OS X has progressively added support for features such as 802.11X wireless authentication, Exchange Server messaging, Active Directory and related networking sharing protocols. Apple's iOS has similarly made enterprise security and device management a key product focus.

In contrast, Google's Android platform, Palm's webOS and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 have all focused on catching up with Apple in the consumer arena, particularly in courting developer support for apps and games as well as in delivering an exciting user interface that consumer pundits can describe as interesting, fresh and novel. Android has managed to position itself as the primary consumer alternative to iOS, becoming virtually indistinguishable to the average consumer looking for a smartphone that can play MP3s, take photos, watch YouTube and play Angry Birds.

Unlike Apple however, Google has not focused on delivering robust support for a set of features that are important to corporate users. Android still lacks the ability to connect to IPSec VPNs and has spotty support for Exchange Server. More importantly however, Android lacks strong support for management tools that corporate users can employ to monitor, manage and police the enforcement of their desired policies.

The fragmentation of Android means that managing Android devices is nearly as difficult as deploying custom software that can reliably run across a wide range of Android devices. Individual Android licensees have responded to this issue by creating their own efforts to support management features on select models.

However, this means that Motorola, HTC, Samsung and other brands of Android hardware all work differently, support different management features and use unique implementations, fractionalizing Android into various hardware-specific flavors. These code customizations also introduce issues that slow the rollout of updates and critical patches, while some carrier and vendor customizations actually expose new security vulnerabilities.

Rather than offering a cohesive platform suitable as a potential alternative to iOS, Android offers a complex array of individual support options that, together, lack the critical mass Google's platform is supposed to offer. This makes Android-branded devices as problematic for corporate users as the incompatible variations of JavaME-based smartphones they replaced. The non-integrated "open" development of Android does not appear focused on solving this issue.

Instead, Google has allowed its hardware partners to develop their own device management solutions while it focuses on delivering support for initiatives like NFC Google Wallet, which are more directly tied to revenue-generating opportunities. This indicates that Android's smaller and shrinking share among corporate users isn't likely to reverse its course any time soon. Instead, it will continue to meet new competition in the corporate arena from Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 smartphones and its Windows 8 tablets later this year or in early 2013.

Challenges facing Apple in the enterprise

Meanwhile, Apple continues to gain ground in the enterprise, both at the expense of alternative smartphone platforms and the conventional PC, which is getting hammered on the high end by Apple's Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Pro and MacBook Air while also losing ground the affordable and mobile segment due to the dramatic uptake of iPad among corporate users who want a simple, manageable platform that's easy to support and develop custom software for.

Apple also faces challenges of its own. If the company wants to capitalize upon its initial success in the enterprise, it will need to continue to deliver top tier support for the features that matter to corporate users. The company appears to be backing out of the Mac OS X Server business, something that could eventually give Microsoft an edge with its alternative Windows Phone and Windows 8 platforms if it chooses to prioritize support for its own platforms ahead of iOS in future Exchange Server features.

Apple has historically also trailed PC makers in providing the kind of product support enterprise IT users expect to have available, including on-site support. From his background in operations (and his prior position at Compaq), Apple's new chief executive Tim Cook appears to have a greater appreciation for the real world, often pedestrian needs of corporate IT departments than Steve Jobs, who enjoyed the luxury of being able to develop custom IT solutions at Pixar, NeXT and within Apple as he turned the company around.

Cook, along with Apple's iOS head Scott Forstall, now face the parallel tasks of keeping Apple's devices fresh, exciting and appealing to consumers while also keeping them reliable, manageable and well supported for IT departments. Right now, the company faces little real competition matching its efforts in either arena, but history indicates that Apple's largely unchallenged market position isn't likely to last long.

No mention of the iPhone Configuration Utility. This is important to Apple's seriousness when entering the enterprise back in 2008. Along with licensing of Exchange ActiveSync they created a tool that worked on both Mac and Windows OS right from version 1.0.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

Corporate IT departments are used to managing PCs, and with it's enterprise feature set, the iPhone is closer to a PC than Android, closer to what they're comfortable with. But I wonder what will happens if MS ever get their act together in this area (e.g. Win 8)

If Apple makes a mistake like RIM or some other platform comes out that is better than the iPhone, they could crash like others have in the past. Innovation comes from all parts of the world. One day an Indian or Chinese company could invent something better. There are more geniuses in China than the entire population of the USA. One of these days it might happen.

Apple also allows mass business installs, and business specific App Stores. Further, with Android saddled in lawsuits, there is a big question mark what the future holds for the platform. Big business also relies on Oracle databases, and Oracle can't be promoting Android adaptation. Further, business relies heavily on Microsoft software. Microsoft actually provides a fair amount of support for iPhones, even releasing applications on the platform. Microsoft will never create such applications like Word on Android. It has already committed to doing so on the iPhone.

More importantly, Big Business likes that all Apps are policed through the App Store. It doesn't want employees getting untested apps, which could spread viruses to its system.

Corporate IT departments are used to managing PCs, and with it's enterprise feature set, the iPhone is closer to a PC than Android, closer to what they're comfortable with. But I wonder what will happens if MS ever get their act together in this area (e.g. Win 8)

Before 1995 Corporate IT managed HP-UX, DEC OSF/1, System V and other variants of UNIX.

OS X is bringing UNIX back to the Enterprise and Apple will be advancing that as it expands the iOS Ecosystem.

If Apple makes a mistake like RIM or some other platform comes out that is better than the iPhone, they could crash like others have in the past. Innovation comes from all parts of the world. One day an Indian or Chinese company could invent something better. There are more geniuses in China than the entire population of the USA. One of these days it might happen.

300 million geniuses?

Innovation is cultural. It will take a very long time for China to breed the kind of thought process that encourages thinking of something that's never been done before. Not to mention the historical disrespect that China has had for intellectual property. So nobody born before today has been raised in an environment where inventing something truly novel can be rewarded by market forces. So yes, someday, but the more likely source of something amazing and new in the next decade will not be China.

If Apple makes a mistake like RIM or some other platform comes out that is better than the iPhone, they could crash like others have in the past. Innovation comes from all parts of the world. One day an Indian or Chinese company could invent something better. There are more geniuses in China than the entire population of the USA. One of these days it might happen.

You're claiming that China has 1 genius for about every 4 people? I'm not sure if you're using Terman or Hollingworth's IQ values or some other system altogether but generally when you refer to geniuses you aren't talking about 25% of a population.

On top of that, there is a plenty of empirical evidence to back up Ericsson's theories that success is determined by many other factores other than raw intelligence once you pass a certain threshold. I believe he put that value near the bottom of the "above average intelligence" level which is far below the "genius" level on the IQ Reference Chart.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

There are more geniuses in China than the entire population of the USA.

Wrong.

Even if you use the most liberal definition of "potential genius," an IQ over 140, you would only be talking about 5 million in China. And the more restrictive definitions, like an IQ over 180, result in only a few individuals, if any (IQs that high are so rare their probability is unknown).

A genius is someone who does something amazing and great, that blows everyone's hair back. It's not simply someone with a high IQ.

This point can be reinforced by reading about Chris Langan. In case you have never heard of him, he is considered by some to be the smartest person in America. On some IQ tests he is off the scale. Now try to find something he has invented. Good luck with that...

If you read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell you'll find he investigates Langan quite extensively and in the end makes it sound as though he is somewhat of a failure when it comes to asserting his genius. It's an interesting read.

Still, this guy is crazy smart but it's not like he's out there inventing tomorrow.

Now, what was I'm going to say... Right, even if Google get it acts together, they won't dare. By following Apple, they need to close their *holes and change tacks and that won't fare very well with their 'Oh! Look how I tinker my phones' type population. The biggest threat is complacency and Windows (too early to say, might be never if PC threats is the yard stick).

If Apple makes a mistake like RIM or some other platform comes out that is better than the iPhone, they could crash like others have in the past. Innovation comes from all parts of the world. One day an Indian or Chinese company could invent something better. There are more geniuses in China than the entire population of the USA. One of these days it might happen.

It might, as you say, but until the Chinese have the words to the theme songs of "Beverly Hillbillie"s and "Gilligan's Island" down pat, we have nothing to be worried about.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TBell

Apple also allows mass business installs, and business specific App Stores. Further, with Android saddled in lawsuits, there is a big question mark what the future holds for the platform. Big business also relies on Oracle databases, and Oracle can't be promoting Android adaptation. Further, business relies heavily on Microsoft software. Microsoft actually provides a fair amount of support for iPhones, even releasing applications on the platform. Microsoft will never create such applications like Word on Android. It has already committed to doing so on the iPhone.

By saddling the Android platform in lawsuits, Apple has put in question what features Android may need to remove someday. Also, with Samsung diverging their version of Android off of version 2.2, and Amazon doing a different adaptation of version 2.2, Google is having a harder and harder time herding their cats going forward.

Quote:

More importantly, Big Business likes that all Apps are policed through the App Store. It doesn't want employees getting untested apps, which could spread viruses to its system.

Yup! And Apple has remote wipe and kill and device tracking as part of their basic design.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

Before 1995 Corporate IT managed HP-UX, DEC OSF/1, System V and other variants of UNIX.

OS X is bringing UNIX back to the Enterprise and Apple will be advancing that as it expands the iOS Ecosystem.

With IBM out of the PC market, the company that made Microsoft part of the early picture and made Microsoft legit by defacto association, is no longer behind Microsoft like a big protective brother. It hasn't done Microsoft any good by taking 2.5 years to get a buggy version of Vista to market either. Those things and how it bobbled its browser and phone business are adding up to a "who cares" attitude by IT regarding the previously favored position of Microsoft.

"That (the) world is moving so quickly that iOS is already amongst the older mobile operating systems in active development today." — The Verge

It's much easier than that.
Switch off the found phone immediately.
Then go deep under ground. 2nd or 3rd basement, underground parking lot.
I bet there is no phone signal there. Switch phone back on and play as much as you like - with no fear of a remote wipe.

It's much easier than that.
Switch off the found phone immediately.
Then go deep under ground. 2nd or 3rd basement, underground parking lot.
I bet there is no phone signal there. Switch phone back on and play as much as you like - with no fear of a remote wipe.

1) That's not easier.

2) Turning an iPhone off and on will not disable Find My iPhone. In fact, a user can send the commands to Apple's servers and it will execute the commands when the service phones home.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

2) Turning an iPhone off and on will not disable Find My iPhone. In fact, a user can send the commands to Apple's servers and it will execute the commands when the service phones home.

Agreed. But the wonderful jailbreak guys...
I had two iPhones stolen. One abroad and one in my country. Both with find my iPhone installed. Abroad I had data roaming switched off (thank you data roaming fees) and no wifi connection at the moment of the theft. In the other instance simply bad reception, but fully functional data connection on my country network.
Both times I immediately fired up find my iPhone, phones didn't appear. I remotely wiped both. They still have to surface on the network. And it happened by the end of September 2011...
The one stolen abroad was sim locked to my country carrier. But accessing a wifi network would be possible.
My guess? Airplane mode immediately: then custom install or jailbreak of some sorts in order to reinstall it as e new iPhone without it phoning Apple's servers.
Thank you EFF and the like. You and your wonderful tinkerers just made a great innovation in phone security utterly useless.
Besides the phone I had some personal data stored on it. No, no login password, because I hate it, and i figured that I could always immediately add one (which I did before the remote wipe command was sent) in the event a phone got stolen.
In the meantime I now have to type a f password just to check on an SMS on my phone. Which means, all in all, between calls, mails, SMS, apps (use it for work) 50 to 100 passwords a day.
Find my iPhone is just a show off. People have figured how a way to circumvent it.
Airplane mode being the easiest. I am not aware if a pw locked phone can, if you bring it to a basement with no reception, be hacked easily. But I don't want to know. 2 iPhones stolen is the maximum I can take. (FYI I have the iPhone since version one. It was just bad luck (add a f bast... To that)

Corporate IT departments are used to managing PCs, and with it's enterprise feature set, the iPhone is closer to a PC than Android, closer to what they're comfortable with. But I wonder what will happens if MS ever get their act together in this area (e.g. Win 8)

This post is very much in my back yard as far as my work goes, i think people have gone off the track a little.
anyone that deals directly with heads of gov departments/bosses in corporate world, knows that the IT department does not dictate what devices are being used, they are told by the heads what they like to use & IT has to make that happen, basically, either internal IT or contractors tell them ideas of what can be done, then the heads choose what they would like.
they are choosing iOS because its becoming the cool gadget to have, it used to be blackberrys, these days they have moved past it, they are frustrated with RIM.
When the bigwigs have a meeting with other bigwigs, the guy with the iPad gets cool points, sounds crazy but thems the facts, I kid you not, this is what i deal with day in day out.
When good for enterprise gets implemented in companies they are told that it has iOS & Android support, they go for the iOS device, ive seen it first hand a few times, i love the iOS stuff so its a win as far as im concerned.
The corporates don't know how to use these devices they have EAs that do the work, they like to read email & look badass in meetings
Side note, the New exchange works perfectly well with iOS for native email, just need certificates to get it to work securely.

[QUOTE=AppleInsider;2033691]Cook, along with Apple's iOS head Scott Forstall, now face the parallel tasks of keeping Apple's devices fresh, exciting and appealing to consumers while also keeping them reliable, manageable and well supported for IT departments. Right now, the company faces little real competition matching its efforts in either arena, but history indicates that Apple's largely unchallenged market position isn't likely to last long.[/QUOTE]

FUD much? Are you a fortune teller too?

Originally Posted by Granmastak: Labor unions managed to kill manufacturing a long time ago with their unreasonable demands. Now the people they were trying to protect, are out of a job.

Agreed. But the wonderful jailbreak guys...
I had two iPhones stolen. One abroad and one in my country. Both with find my iPhone installed. Abroad I had data roaming switched off (thank you data roaming fees) and no wifi connection at the moment of the theft. In the other instance simply bad reception, but fully functional data connection on my country network.
Both times I immediately fired up find my iPhone, phones didn't appear. I remotely wiped both. They still have to surface on the network. And it happened by the end of September 2011...
The one stolen abroad was sim locked to my country carrier. But accessing a wifi network would be possible.
My guess? Airplane mode immediately: then custom install or jailbreak of some sorts in order to reinstall it as e new iPhone without it phoning Apple's servers.
Thank you EFF and the like. You and your wonderful tinkerers just made a great innovation in phone security utterly useless.
Besides the phone I had some personal data stored on it. No, no login password, because I hate it, and i figured that I could always immediately add one (which I did before the remote wipe command was sent) in the event a phone got stolen.
In the meantime I now have to type a f password just to check on an SMS on my phone. Which means, all in all, between calls, mails, SMS, apps (use it for work) 50 to 100 passwords a day.
Find my iPhone is just a show off. People have figured how a way to circumvent it.
Airplane mode being the easiest. I am not aware if a pw locked phone can, if you bring it to a basement with no reception, be hacked easily. But I don't want to know. 2 iPhones stolen is the maximum I can take. (FYI I have the iPhone since version one. It was just bad luck (add a f bast... To that)

Find my phone is better than nothing. It has worked for some people, especially for misplaced or forgotten phones. As for stolen phones, depends how smart the thief is. Just last week in NYC, a police officer caught a thief shortly after an iphone was stolen. The story made headlines, look it up.
fwiw, you need to be a little more careful. 2 stolen phones?

Agreed. But the wonderful jailbreak guys...
I had two iPhones stolen. One abroad and one in my country. Both with find my iPhone installed. Abroad I had data roaming switched off (thank you data roaming fees) and no wifi connection at the moment of the theft. In the other instance simply bad reception, but fully functional data connection on my country network.
Both times I immediately fired up find my iPhone, phones didn't appear. I remotely wiped both. They still have to surface on the network. And it happened by the end of September 2011...
The one stolen abroad was sim locked to my country carrier. But accessing a wifi network would be possible.
My guess? Airplane mode immediately: then custom install or jailbreak of some sorts in order to reinstall it as e new iPhone without it phoning Apple's servers.
Thank you EFF and the like. You and your wonderful tinkerers just made a great innovation in phone security utterly useless.

I am confused why the jailbreak guys get the blame (of which I am one). You just answered your own questions. Shutting both data roaming off and there being no wifi in the country you were visiting precludes FInd My Phone from working. As far as the one taken at home, if the phone was restored to factory settings before you tried to use FInd My Phone, Find My Phone would not have worked either. Otherwise, previous owners of phones could be tracking the new owners around.

It is technologically possible to track the phones after a Restore because of each phone's unique IMEA number, but Apple doesn't track lost or stolen phones. Most carriers do not either. The carriers, however, will block them from the network (if reported).

Don't forget the Mac mini. It's an ideal solution because it's price is comparable to new PCs, has almost no footprint, is extremely quiet, uses almost no energy, is fast and has a very efficient sleep mode.
The machines are a godsend at the place I work (I finally managed to get rid of the rattling and screeching windows box of only a few years old).

If Apple makes a mistake like RIM or some other platform comes out that is better than the iPhone, they could crash like others have in the past. Innovation comes from all parts of the world. One day an Indian or Chinese company could invent something better. There are more geniuses in China than the entire population of the USA. One of these days it might happen.

Don't think so.

You're misunderstanding Apple if you think it is as simple as some Chinese "genius" inventing "something better".

You must understand the difference between the BlackBerry--which people love to use as the example of how fast one can fall--and iPhone. BlackBerry pre-iPhone was essentially just a cell phone that was good for e-mail and text messaging. It was very easy for users to leave that behind. iPhone, on the other hand, is really a pocket-sized computer...fused, of course, with a phone (and now a "real" camera). It has over a half a million apps to run on it. It meshes seamlessly with iCloud and the rest of the Apple ecosystem.

So even if someone developed a better pocket-sized computer/phone, that's absolutely not enough. It won't get off the ground without a comparable library of apps (and the rest of the ecosystem). But this raises a classic chicken-and-egg problem for any would-be competitor.

Agreed. But the wonderful jailbreak guys...
I had two iPhones stolen. One abroad and one in my country. Both with find my iPhone installed. Abroad I had data roaming switched off (thank you data roaming fees) and no wifi connection at the moment of the theft. In the other instance simply bad reception, but fully functional data connection on my country network.
Both times I immediately fired up find my iPhone, phones didn't appear. I remotely wiped both. They still have to surface on the network. And it happened by the end of September 2011...
The one stolen abroad was sim locked to my country carrier. But accessing a wifi network would be possible.
My guess? Airplane mode immediately: then custom install or jailbreak of some sorts in order to reinstall it as e new iPhone without it phoning Apple's servers.
Thank you EFF and the like. You and your wonderful tinkerers just made a great innovation in phone security utterly useless.
Besides the phone I had some personal data stored on it. No, no login password, because I hate it, and i figured that I could always immediately add one (which I did before the remote wipe command was sent) in the event a phone got stolen.
In the meantime I now have to type a f password just to check on an SMS on my phone. Which means, all in all, between calls, mails, SMS, apps (use it for work) 50 to 100 passwords a day.
Find my iPhone is just a show off. People have figured how a way to circumvent it.
Airplane mode being the easiest. I am not aware if a pw locked phone can, if you bring it to a basement with no reception, be hacked easily. But I don't want to know. 2 iPhones stolen is the maximum I can take. (FYI I have the iPhone since version one. It was just bad luck (add a f bast... To that)

Eh? You indicate that you didn't protect your iPhones with a login password. And you complain about it taken over by someone else.
Wow. As far as I know it's pretty impossible to jailbreak an iPhone if it's password protected.
I tried it and so did some of my friends with an iPhone found under the ice but it didn't work.
(It's was impossible to find the owner, we asked around everywhere, so we tried to find address info on the iPhone itself.)
I also found out that no one was inclined to help you if you could have stolen the iPhone.
The only way is to open the iPhone and change the flash ram (or something).
So, Altough I am no fan of jail breaking, I have to say that it's unfair to blame them for your own mistake.

Eh? You indicate that you didn't protect your iPhones with a login password. And you complain about it taken over by someone else.
Wow. As far as I know it's pretty impossible to jailbreak an iPhone if it's password protected.
I tried it and so did some of my friends with an iPhone found under the ice but it didn't work.
(It's was impossible to find the owner, we asked around everywhere, so we tried to find address info on the iPhone itself.)
I also found out that no one was inclined to help you if you could have stolen the iPhone.
The only way is to open the iPhone and change the flash ram (or something).
So, Altough I am no fan of jail breaking, I have to say that it's unfair to blame them for your own mistake.

J.

Perhaps I'm being pedantic but it's far from being impossible. With the typical setup you have unlimited times to try and only 10,000 options. That might be tedious to check but it could be done within a few days if one really wanted access to your phone.

I used to use the alphanumeric passowrd that could be applied when using the iPhone Configuration Utility profile but with some iOS release they added an erase after 10 tries option that made this level of security no longer needed even though they also added the alphanumerics password option.

While pinolo is right about how Find My iPhone can be disabled I think there is more than enough inherent benefit that I will be buying a 3G iPad 3. I lost my WiFi iPad 2 and had zero recourse to even attempt to location it since my password lock was enabled and WiFi doesn't auto-connect to networks. It would be a rare case of connecting to something generic like Linksys or being in range of my home network to have connected to Find My iPhone* send the "please return" message, which sends you an email upon completion which would let me locate its last position.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

Tiny error in the graph, all Windows Phone 7 devices are upgradable to Mango.

I don't know much about Windows Phone 7. Is that like the "Android phones are upgradeable" line where they are theoretically upgradable but the carrier never makes the upgrade available? Or is it a real, honest to goodness upgradeability?

(not that it really matters given how few Windows Phone 7 devices are out there, but I'm curious).

Quote:

Originally Posted by IHateScreenNames

This point can be reinforced by reading about Chris Langan. In case you have never heard of him, he is considered by some to be the smartest person in America. On some IQ tests he is off the scale. Now try to find something he has invented. Good luck with that...

If you read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell you'll find he investigates Langan quite extensively and in the end makes it sound as though he is somewhat of a failure when it comes to asserting his genius. It's an interesting read.

Still, this guy is crazy smart but it's not like he's out there inventing tomorrow.

Or, on the other extreme, pick your favorite invention. It is unlikely that the inventor was a super-genius as measured by IQ.

Project Horizon from VMware which will blow the bring your own device wide open. Separate corporate and personal areas of a single phone where only the corp side can be wiped and administered by IT. And what platform is this being demoed on? Android. Once this becomes mainstream, the majority platform (which btw, *is* Android) will be allowed to easily and securely proliferate inside of corporations. And hopefully not screw up Exchange calendars like the iPhone/iTunes combo can.

Project Horizon from VMware which will blow the bring your own device wide open. Separate corporate and personal areas of a single phone where only the corp side can be wiped and administered by IT. And what platform is this being demoed on? Android. Once this becomes mainstream, the majority platform (which btw, *is* Android) will be allowed to easily and securely proliferate inside of corporations. And hopefully not screw up Exchange calendars like the iPhone/iTunes combo can.

Tell us when (if) it happens. I can't take anyone seriously who throws out a developmental, untested solution and says "Once this becomes mainstream".

Frankly, I'd be surprised if any IT department would want to mess with such a clumsy solution. Especially given that one of the bigger concerns about Android is that even a phone that's fully controlled by IT has huge security risks. A phone that's half open would be even worse.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

How can anyone refute "if some other platform comes out that is better than the iPhone?" It's impossible to refute an "if." Nicely done.

Sheesh...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smallwheels

If Apple makes a mistake like RIM or some other platform comes out that is better than the iPhone, they could crash like others have in the past. Innovation comes from all parts of the world. One day an Indian or Chinese company could invent something better. There are more geniuses in China than the entire population of the USA. One of these days it might happen.